ROCK’N ON THE RIDEAU continued from pg 17
scene, but with room for only about 65 people, it was time to look for a new location. Luckily this was around the time the National Capital Commission was buying up and restoring properties along Sussex Drive. The site chosen for the new Le
Hibou was 521 Sussex, about three blocks down from Rideau Street right on the edge of the market. It was the perfect location, both aesthetically and practically. The move doubled Le Hibou’s
capacity. The new room was bright, the ceilings high and the worst seat in the house was only about 20 feet from the stage. The sound was better, and despite the larger size of the room, the intimate atmosphere was still there. For purists, the next five years
were the “Golden Era” for Le Hibou. We had Canadian legends like Joni
Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot and Buffy Sainte-Marie, international stars like Jerry Jeff Walker, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee, James Cotton, John Lee Hooker and Odetta. William Hawkins fondly
recalls the night Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention graced the stage. Sneezy Waters remembers Jessie Colin Young and the Youngbloods holding down a two week residency at Hibou to tighten up in advance of some big American shows. Friday nights at midnight
you could groove to Ottawa’s first Blues band, The Heavenly Blues, featuring Hawkins, Ted Giroux, Bruce Cockburn and a rotating roster of hot local players. Cockburn, Sneezy Waters, David Wiffen, Bill Stevenson, and later on the MRQ and Heaven’s Radio, were regulars. Sneezy, in fact, holds the distinction of playing all three versions of Le Hibou, and being the
last performer to hit the stage in 1975. He remembers Le Hibou’s closing night as being “a really emotional one, knowing it was the last time”. When the lights went out that
night it brought the curtain down on a music space that’s remembered fondly by a generation of music fans and musicians alike. Arthur McGregor of the Ottawa Folklore Centre remembers Le Hibou as “a starting point for a huge number of local performers. Getting to play on the same stage as Joni Mitchell and other legends was such an honour.” Ironically, Arthur used the
upstairs space on Sussex to teach guitar lessons, which led to the birth of the Ottawa Folklore Centre on Bank street. OFC is seen by many as carrying on the spirit of Le Hibou, and maintaining Ottawa’s reputation as a true “Folk Town”. You also get that same sense of community, opportunity and love of
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46 BOUNDER MAGAZINE
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